La Cabana

THIS IS OUR FAVORITE MEXICAN FOOD IN THE CITIES! YUMMY! My husband and I have been going here for years! All the drinks are amazing and all the food is so good.

If they would turn down the karaōke in would frequent this place, but until that happens I will go when I don’t want to drive anywhere else. The food on the other hand is perfect!

Killer food!
The only Groupon I’ve ever used– and they seem to have an ongoing one. $ 30 for $ 15. So worth it.
Large menu, lots of Mexican standards and tons of fresh seafood. A table next to us had whole fried fish and it was huge and smelled incredible.
We had a terrific Campechana stuffed full of shrimp, octopus and oysters. It was topped fresh avocado and very refreshing on a hot July day. We also ordered the garlic shrimp. 10 nice sized shrimp with rice and salad in a buttery garlic chili sauce served with fluffy warm corn tortillas. They were great.
You could eat here twice daily for a month and not try everything on their vast menu. They serve icy cold beer by the bottle or by the bucket. The place was full of Mexican men when we were there and they treated us like we were with them. Friendly place, great waitress too.
Excellent warm crispy chips and salsas to start.
I only knocked off a star because it’s warm in there– like Mexico warm. The A/​C comes from a vent on the floor and is working really hard to keep the temp at 80f. No matter, just wear shorts.
Karaōke is Fri/​Sat/​Sun.
Can’t wait to eat there again.

I have a love-​hate relationship with this place. I’ve been coming here for some years now, only for the Sopa Azteca that is amazingly delicious, and I need to have it at least once a week. The «Caldo de Res» is also very good.
What I don’t like is the crowd that it’s been known to drag in. If you decide to go, I’d say go before 4pm during the week. If you go in during the weekend, especially late at night and you’re into drunks, karaōke, and slow service, then by all means go on in and have fun.

I feel guilty giving people the skinny on La Cabana because it is a hidden gem in East Side and I don’t want to see it ruined! But, seeing these reviews, it’s really got to be noted for first-​timers interested in this joint that it has two extremely different experiences within its doors:
During the day time on week days it is an above average, authentic Mexican restaurant with decent pricing. It’s a great place to sit down by yourself or with a small party, being mostly quiet, friendly, and reserved.
Otherwise, on Most nights (especially after 9pm) and some weekends during the daytime you’ll find it to be a very loud Karaōke spot. They’ll still have the great food, you just have to be either down to party with the locals or enjoy your food with some awesome Mexican jams and occasional bad singing! If you’re open to doing some Karaōke, they’ll put on some American songs via Youtube for you to sing to.
I read Jason K.‘s review below and was a tad offended. The people doing Karaōke aren’t there to entertain you. Your permission is not needed for them to enjoy themselves. They are people interested in their own food and entertainment. Knowing most of the regulars, I can tell you that this group of people typically know each other very well (many work together) and have been coming here for quite some time. You just didn’t know what atmosphere you were getting into and it wasn’t quite the «suburb Applebee’s» setting. Don’t go East Side for that, like Dan said.
In synopsis — Really good, authentic Mexican food. Great staff with quick service, especially the waitresses. Both family dining and night/​party settings available. Always a very goodhearted, «Mexican» experience. Unlimited chips and salsa with all meals or drinks.
Recommendations: I particularly like the Carnitas (pork) Verde combination meal here. Most of their stuff with Pork ended up being my favorite. Modelo buckets with Limes and salt, especially on Karaōke nights. Get kids or grumpy people home before 9 or 10 pm. Many regulars don’t speak English; that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time with them.

Absolutely love this place! Great authentic food and a great wait staff. The salsa verde is amazing, can’t get enough of it!

I’m bummed with all the bad reviews. The full blast karaōke is one of the endearing things about this place. If you don’t like, take your groupon back to Woodbury.

This was one of the weirdest lunches I have ever had.
My wife and I had a Groupon for $ 30 and we were in St. Paul. We entered La Cabana and the Mexican music was blaring! We could barely hear each other talk during the whole meal.
The place was full of locals towards the end it seemed and the menu was expansive. I ordered a Michelada, sort of a Mexican Bloody Mary with beer instead of tequila. I love them.
I would have given the place 4 stars based on the food, but let’s get into the details.
The Good:
The Michelada was AMAZING! One of the best I have ever had. Perfect amount of spiciness with a bottle of Dos Equis. Lots of chili salt around the frosted mug.
I ordered shrimp in cooked in spicy salsa. Also AMAZING! My wife got some corn tortillas, and it was like eating off a taco truck in Nogales. Great stuff. The salad on the side had some avacado on it and the shrimps were large. My wife tried a couple and loved them.
The chips were solid and the red and green salsa were pretty good as well. I would have liked a bit more spiciness.
My wife got the tongue torta, which was wonderful. The tongue wasn’t greasy at all. The bread was the perfect torta style. Lots of jalapenos and the Mexican cheese was beautiful. The corn tortillas were small, but in the small, perfect taco size kid of small.
The service was great, kind of disappointed we used a Groupon it seemed (Later on this) but nice enough.
The very bad:
The decibels were outrageous! We could barely hear ourselves. Imagine the loudest Mexican music you would ever hear in a restaurant and double it!
Some dude started singing super loud karaōke at noon on a Saturday. I think it was the owner or something.
There were like 4 of us in the restaurant, and no. we did not ask him to sing karaōke.
Our bill had an extra «Open Food» for $ 7 that magically got added on it. I am sure because we had a Groupon, it just «Happened» to show up on there hoping we wouldn’t check. That really made us angry. She said, «Oh, I put it on there by mistake. That was for someone else.» «Someone ordered «Open Food? Yeah, right.»
So I can’t give the place 4 stars because I would never recommend it to a friend, maybe for take-​out, but my friends would never forgive me if I told them to dine-​in.
The food was amazing though.

Groupon scores again!
Checked this place out because the picture on the Groupon made my mouth water. (And yes, I know those photos are staged.) At first glance, when walking in, you think that maybe someone lives in the back. And to be honest, maybe they do. Making burritos like that, you can take a nap next to my table if you want. Just wake in time to bring me more of that salsa verde with crack in it.
This food was magically authentic! And yes, that previous comment IS stereotypical, but tell me you don’t breathe a sigh of relief each time you walk into an Asian restaurant and are the only blonde-​haired blue-​eyed player in the joint. This food was on point! Cheap prices, great service, burritos the size of your head and the verdiest of salsas.
There are some other reviews that note bad service during very busy hours. I can only attest to my experience over the course of a two hour dinner, during which time my friend and I were two of only six total people that patronized the joint. But it was enough to bring me back for sure.
Me gusto!

We bought a Groupon because the reviews seemed really good. When we got there, we walked in and it was very crowded and EXTREMELY loud with karaōke. It seemed like there was a private party going on. No one came to help us, but rather just stared at us because we looked so out of place. Walking up we had seen another couple, obviously not part of the «party,» sitting on the other side of the restaurant. We had to ask if we should go sit over there. They shrugged and indicated yes.
It was dark and there were baseboards lying on the floor. On this right half of the building there were four plastic folding tables, each with 2 – 4 metal folding chairs. It was extremely loud, and I couldn’t have a conversation with my family the whole time we were there.
The waitress brought us 2 menus and asked if we wanted another. We said yes (there were 3 of us), but she never brought the 3^rd. She brought us our drinks and a small basket of chips with 2 kinds of salsa. The green salsa was good, but the red was too watery. When she came back to take our order, we had 2 empty waters and empty chips but never got a refill on anything. 15 minutes later, no one had come to check on us, and we got our dinner. Our appetizer came about 5 minutes after our dinners did, and it was cold.
My son got a cheese quesadilla and french fries. Both were lukewarm at best. My husband got fajitas. The steak was bland, the shrimp tasted good. I thought it strange that he wasn’t given a couple of tortillas, but he was fine without them. I got the beef enchiladas with green sauce and a hard taco. The beans were watery and bland, the rice was as bland as white rice, and the taco was bland. The enchiladas were pretty good, but the salad on top had strange Italian flavors, probably due to the parmesan and dressing. When our appetizers came, sopes, we were pleasantly surprised with how good they looked. Then they tasted extremely bland as well.
When we were almost done eating, the waitress came and asked to see our Groupon without asking if we wanted dessert or anything else. My husband went to the bathroom while she ran his credit card, and he said it was just absolutely disgusting with urine all over the toilet and he said that the corner looked like it had been used as a toilet many times as well.
I’m all for dumpy hole-in-the-walls…if they have good food and decent service. We won’t be back here, though.

Three different types of salsa along with your chips. Really fresh tasting.
Drinks and 2 meals came out under $ 25. Overflowing plates that are dee-​lish. Highly recommended.

Was really excited to try this place after reading the reviews, but this is one I will have to unbookmark.
Walked in and the place was swarming with flies. There was sticky pop all over the chair I was going to sit in so I exchanged chairs for another not so clean one.
Menus were filthy, with food and other questionable objects stuck on.
The young girl helping out was very nice and helpful, but we did not care to dine with flies consistenly swarming, not to mention the bug zapper in the kitchen.
I hate to give it a 1, but wow– this place needs to step up on the cleaning process. I would think they have the time since there was nobody else in the restaurant over the lunch hour.

This place is great. I was visiting on business and walked almost three miles to try it based on the reviews! It was worth the walk. Very authentic, lots of flavor. Highly reccommended!!!